Distance Learning: Helping Students Set Up a Daily Routine

March 31, 2020 / Oskar Cymerman

Helping Students Set Up a Daily Distance Learning Routine

This is my fifth post on Distance Learning. You can check out the other three by searching for “Distance Learning” in the search bar on the right. All posts are intended to help make the transition from traditional to completely-online learning easier. Please use the comment section at the bottom to share helpful ideas, tools, and techniques you use.

I wasn’t gonna do this…

But then this happened:

“The transition to isolation is weird. I think I’m finally getting the hang of things and having a routine, but it is hard having the motivation to do homework.”

— Student posting to a discussion board I set up for distance learning

She’s a really good student. It looks like she’s adjusting well. She’s figuring this distance learning thing out. But it got me thinking…

How many students are having a really hard time with this transition?

and,

What else can I do to help?

The first question is important to ask but the answer doesn’t really matter because one is enough. But of course there are many students at all levels who don’t have it figured out. Some don’t know how to begin. Yeah, they’re calling it coronacation, hiding their true feelings. Deep inside not panic but no picnic, they are stressing.

Their normal is going from class to class and following their teachers’ lead. In the new distance learning world of school, teachers can leave it up to parents to help kids with this transition and many parents will do well. I just think that in this case the teacher’s responsibility to “give students the right tools for the job” extends beyond the bricks and now-locked doors of schools.

We should help.

First, we can help with the transition by easing into distance learning.

Second, we can help our students set up a daily distance learning routine.

Below is what my lesson plan for this looks like. Click on the image if you’d like a copy. The rationale and descriptions follow.

Setting Up Your Distance Learning Routine Lesson Plan

Chronotypes

Michael J. Breus, or the “sleep doctor,” identifies four animals: Bear, Dolphin, Lion, and Wolf to separate individuals into four categories determined by how our biology and the time of day influences our focus and productivity. These categories are called chronotypes. According to Dr. Breus, identifying the chronotype helps a person identify the optimal time or times for his or her brain to focus and execute.

When writing my lesson plan, I summarized Dr. Breus’ findings in 328 words in a teen-friendly What Chronotype Are You? article (copy and use if you wish). This short reading activity will help students identify their chronotypes which will later help them set up routines that best fit their lifestyles and biology.

Optimal Time

When a student identifies her chronotype she begins to understand her internal clock. This allows her to strategically pick the optimal times for her to work on school assignments. The Daily Routine for Learning from Home activity I designed shows students examples of routines for different chronotypes. Here’s one:

Example Distance Learning Routine for the Lion Chronotype

The examples are followed by a blank Distance Learning Routine Table students can fill out based on their chronotypes. Notice that I included alternative schedules at the bottom and a third column for students to consider work habits that will support their productivity.

Supporting Habits

Having the routine written down is an important first step. Next comes the follow through - the actual doing of the routine. I am certain students can set up great routines and have smashing intentions on following them but if they do not plan for maintaining focus and avoiding distractions they will lose focus and get distracted.

Enter supporting habits. This might be the most important column in the table because it implores students to consider habits that will help them get stuff done.

If you teach or parent or anything really you know the smartphone is both the most sophisticated learning and access to everything weapon and one of mass distraction. We need to teach students (and remind ourselves at times) to plan for using it the right way at the right time. It’s okay to use the phone to check you social during the five-minute break but if you keeping doing it during a scheduled work session? Well… Shit just got put off… It’ll get done but it’ll be a minute…

Truthfully, I’m addicted to my phone and I’m 42. Teens are like something-teen which means even their will power is willfully contrary. But maybe, just maybe, if they choose the good habits themselves (we might suggest, but they must pick) they will follow through. That’s the hope at least.

Visual Directions for Creating a Distance Learning Routine

Flexibility

I like things being done a certain way. Don’t you? So do our students. Chances are all of us like things done a certain different from each other way. We like things done our way because they are convenient for us. But what’s convenient for us may be inconvenient for our students and the goal of education is not teacher convenience. It’s student learning and students learn best at different times of the day. Their life situation may require they learn during less kosher hours of the day. Distance learning is gifting us with the chance to let them. And does when they learn really matter if they do in fact learn?

Distance learning requires flexibility not rigidity. The sudden transition from traditional to online schooling created numerous inconveniences for teachers and students alike so its important to adjust in a way that invokes the least stress. This involves flexibility with due dates and adjusting how and when you grade summative work.

It’ll all work out for the best if we’re flexible. If a student chooses to get his school stuff done mid-day let’s let him. If another chooses to stay up and grind at night why can’t she? The only question that matters is: Is she learning?

Does it matter when?

Key Points

Chronotypes help in figuring out a person’s optimal time to be productive.
Routines mean jack if not supported with good work habits.
Rigidity wins battles, flexibility wins wars. Coronavirus? It’s a war.

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Easing Into Distance Learning - The First 2 Lessons

March 27, 2020 / Oskar Cymerman

Easing Into Distance Learning For Teachers

“Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths.”

— Etty Hillesum

This is my fourth post on Distance Learning. You can check out the other three by searching for “Distance Learning” in the search bar on the right. All posts are intended to help make the transition from traditional to completely-online learning easier. Please use the comment section at the bottom to share helpful ideas, tools, and techniques you use.

Monday’s the day hundreds of thousands of Minnesota students are coming back to school. They’re not walking the sidewalks, riding their bikes, getting off buses, nor parking their cars in their usual lot spots. They’re coming and staying at a distance all at the same time - learning from a distance as their teachers teach through screens and empty buildings are replaced by busy minds but hopefully not lagging Internet connections. Starting is hard so start easy. Easy does it.

Easing Into It

At first, I was “just gonna dive into it” like the novel coronavirus-caused hiatus never happened. But then someone smarter helped me see the light.

The images of the first two lessons are below. Click on each hyperdoc image if you’d like to copy it into your Google drive and edit for your purposes.

The First Lesson

I decided to use day 1 as a chance to do three things.

First, I wanted to help my students and their parents better understand how learning from home will look like. The “How This Distance Learning Thing Will Work” document is a Google doc that contains a list of most important routines, things to know, and how school-home communication will happen.

Second, I wanted to show and practice “doing” attendance. For each day, I created (and will create for all future online learning days) a Schoology assignment that allows student submissions I call the “Daily Attendance Bell Ringer.” For clarity, I will be using the Day, Date, Name format. Thus the first one is named “Monday 3/30 Attendance Bell Ringer.” You can set up something similar in other LMS platforms such as Google Classroom, Blackboard, or Moodle.

Third, I wanted to reach out to and keep in touch with my students so I created a discussion for each class which allows me to see how everyone is doing and provides an additional way to communicate. The nice thing is that I get an email every time a student posts a question or a comment to the discussion so I can respond quickly.

The Second Lesson

Day 2 gives another chance to reinforce the attendance procedure and an introduction to the three online apps we’ll predominantly use: Flipgrid, Adobe Spark, and Piktochart. I also plan on using Pear Deck, EdPuzzle, and a few other tools but I think three hit the getting started sweet spot.

The rest can be introduced individually during content lessons. Chances are though that you’ve already used most of the tools you plan on using during distance learning in your classroom so they are not completely strange to your students. It is important to note however that first introducing and then scaffolding the totally new tools will lead to fewer hiccups and less frequent headaches. But sometimes you just gotta to rough it.

The Benefits of Starting Slow

Less stress for teachers and students as everyone is given additional time to get used to the new normal before the impending doom of summative work.
Teachers who teach 2 or more courses can use the same lesson plans for the first few days for each class.
Fewer “How do I…” or “Where can I…” questions and a smoother transition to distance learning as routines are established first.
Being a human being?

Key Points

Take at least 2 days to ease into high school distance learning and perhaps longer if students are younger.
Establish and practice procedures and routines and keep some constancy.
Do everything you can to reduce the stress and keep breathing normally.

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Distance Learning for Teachers: Part 3 - Setting Up Projects

March 20, 2020 / Oskar Cymerman

Distance Learning For Teachers - Projects

“Clean out a corner of your mind and creativity will instantly fill it.”

— Dee Hock

This is the third post in the Distance Learning for Teachers series. You can check out Distance Learning for Teachers: Part 1 - Hyperdocs and Distance Learning for Teachers: Part 2 - Activities here and here.

Let’s be real. While we don’t know exactly how long general social distancing and school closures will last we can use the 8-week CDC recommendation to guess that we need to prepare for about two months of distance learning.

Considering some states (Minnesota is one of them) where infections haven’t even begun to peak and we are likely to see the curve grow exponentially before it eventually flattens, it’s easy to forecast a scenario of 10-12 weeks of distance learning. In a nutshell, we might not open school doors to students for official classes until the 2020-21 school year.

But no matter the state you live and work in, preparing daily lesson plans, communicating with students, parents, and colleagues, keeping records such as attendance, going through assignments, grading, and setting up different online structures to make distance learning work in addition to taking care of our stuck-at-home children will be challenging.

The teaching community will get it done - no question about it. But I think it’s important for our sanity to plan a few learning activities that will lighten the load. Enter distance learning projects.

STEP 3: Setting Up Projects

Here’s what my first distance learning lesson/project for my Principles of Engineering class looks like:

Engineering (Robotics) Distance Learning Project

During the first activity, students click on the blue A Brief History of Robotics video link which takes them to the video I uploaded to EdPuzzle and added questions to. They watch it, answer questions, and move on to the 6 Types of Robots activity which is a quick reading that introduces them to the types of robots. The main purpose of these first two activities is to acquaint students with the concept of robotics and the types of robots we manufacture.

The project that follows is intended to have them dive in - they might not become experts in all the robot types but by examining one type more closely and creating a digital product on it they will learn the reasons for having robots and the basics of how they are made and how they work. The image below shows the complete directions for the project.

Notice that I differentiated by allowing each student to pick the type of product he or she wants to create (Adobe Spark video, web page, brochure, or poster).

I also gave students a rough schedule to follow. This is something we might normally communicate verbally on a daily basis as students work on the project in class. Although some (read most) students will choose to procrastinate while distance learning, it’s important to still give them some structure they can follow if needed. I think it will be even more important to scaffold learning and assignments while learning remotely.

In addition, I gave them the starting steps to Adobe Spark so they don’t have to wonder about how to get going. Most of my students have not used Adobe Spark before but I am confident they’ll figure it out. Having a concrete staring point will help as it is often the first step that’s the most difficult one to take. Once they start, they will discover that many online apps and tools are intuitive to learn and use.

Funny note: two students already requested access to the document as I mistakenly posted the link as “private.” They’re not even supposed to start until Monday 3/30. My guess is they are getting bored. Let’s give them something meaningful and fun to do.

The Benefits of Doing Distance Learning Projects

Creativity

Learning 21st Century Presentation Tools (vs. creating PowerPoints and Google Slideshows every time)

Learning the content in a fun way?

Less time spent grading and planning daily activities

Key Points

Set up your project with 1 or 2 front-loading, content-rich activities.
Be detailed in your directions and remember to scaffold.
Projects are fun for students and help teachers stay sane (allegedly).

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